


Scrupulous

by phoenixflight



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Awkward Boners, Bathing/Washing, Loyalty, Service, Shaving, Situational Humiliation, non sexual exhibition, slight dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24254284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixflight/pseuds/phoenixflight
Summary: One of the many duties of the Emperor's edocharei is to shave him. Everywhere.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 20
Collections: The Goblin Emperor Filthfest 2020





	Scrupulous

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a line in passing from one of [Island_of_Reil's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Island_of_Reil/pseuds/Island_of_Reil) fics, [Orshan's Kiss.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11294037)

Maia was unaccustomed to many of the rituals of personal hygiene that accompanied his accession to Emperor. At Adonomee the only piped water had been in the kitchen, where a large bronze tub allowed for bathing if one was not concerned with privacy. If one were, then a bath meant having Pelchara haul two dozen buckets of heated water up to one’s chambers, and Pelchara had a stiff back. More often than not, Maia washed his hair in the kitchen, which had the added benefit of being warm even in the depths of winter, and carried just a bucket or two to clean the rest of his body in private with a dampened cloth. 

The daily baths that his edocharei drew for him were a stunning luxury, and since no one had to carry the water by hand he could enjoy them thoroughly. More startling were the scented oils that they rubbed him with every morning, until his skin felt as tender and silken as the petal of an orchid. Nemer’s strong hands kneading the oil into his back made an undeniably pleasant start to the day, once or twice pleasant enough to cause Maia some embarrassment. Thankfully, he’d had his dressing gown in hand to pull over his lap. 

The elaborate braiding and coifing of his hair was to be expected, although he found it tedious. Likewise the delicate lacquering of his nails. He gathered from Esha’s cheerful chatter that some courtiers repainted their nails every day, or even more than once a day, to match the color of their chosen outfit. Maia was exceedingly grateful that white always suited the Emperor, so his nails only had to be touched up when the finish began to chip. 

However, Maia was not prepared for the morning Avris brandished a fine, gleaming blade as Nemer was draining the bath. 

“What is that for?” Maia asked, tensing instinctively. His nohecharei were by the door, and neither Cala nor Beshelar had reacted to the sight of the razor. 

“To shave your Serenity,” Avris said, setting a copper bowl of soapy water beside the tub. 

Maia lifted a hand to his chin. His cheeks grew hair slowly and with adolescent sparseness, which only needed to be shaved once a week or so. “Shouldn’t we sit upright?” 

“Not your face, Serenity, your body.” 

“My… is that necessary?” Maia asked faintly. 

Avris looked at him quizzically. “It is the done thing, Serenity.” 

“Oh. Well.” 

Avris took his ankle in one hand, propping Maia’s foot against the edge of the tub, and stroked the soapy lather onto his leg. Then he drew the razor smoothly down Maia’s calf, leaving a clean stripe through the suds. Nemer bustled around to the foot of the tub also and began rubbing the soles of Maia’s feet as Avris worked. Maia relaxed, letting his eyes drift shut. The strokes of the razor were a mild, ticklish sensation, vaguely pleasant. Avris meticulously shaved both calves and then began working on Maia’s thighs. 

Maia’s eyes flew open again as Avris pushed his legs apart. He shifted abruptly, trying to sit up, and Avris drew back his hand. “Careful, Serenity! We would be most sorry to cut you.”

“Sorry, that’s… what are you… surely you’ve finished?” Maia’s legs were smooth and hairless and strangely tingling with the new sensation. 

Avris blinked at him. “No, Serenity, not yet.” He gestured in the direction of Maia’s groin and Maia looked down. 

“Surely not… that’s…  _ that _ is the custom?” 

“Yes, Serenity.” 

“You really must…?” 

“It is considered most hygienic and desirable, Serenity.” Esha piped up from where he was laying out the day’s robes on the chaise beside the bath. 

“But I don’t…” Maia began and bit down on the sentence. 

Avris looked distressed. “It is our job to ensure the highest standards of care of our Emperor.”

“Of course.” His edocharei had been nothing but loyal and earnest in serving him, and he was loath to make a fuss over something they clearly considered expected. He did his best to mask his discomfort as he sat back and let his knees part again. “How - ah, how should we sit?” 

“Slide forward a little more, Serenity, and pull your legs up. Just like that.” 

Nemer leaned forward and curled a hand behind each of Maia’s knees, helping him hold them open. Maia felt his face heating, and it had nothing to do with the dissipating steam from his earlier bath. 

Avris’s touch was businesslike, carding soapy fingers through the curls at the base of his shaft and beginning to apply the razor. Maia did his best to hold still, but found himself panting, from no particular exertion. It was the intensity of the contact, the knowledge that all three of them, plus his nohecharei were watching Averis’s tidy strokes and the delicate gray flesh being revealed beneath the soap and hair. The exposure prickled across Maia’s skin like a fever. He felt his nipples growing hard and hoped desperately that he would not embarrass himself otherwise. 

When Avris lifted his mostly-soft member with two fingers Maia couldn’t help flinching. “Serenity?” Avris enquired. 

Maia was afraid that if he tried to speak his voice would crack or shake, so he merely waved a hand in generalized permission. Avris continued, working the blade skillfully and swiftly in the crease between his thigh and his genitals. Every scrape of the blade heightened the sensitivity of an already sensitive region. Avris rolled Mais’s stones gently in his fingers to shave beneath them and Maia sucked in a breath, feeling himself helplessly thickening. Not fully hard but the twitch of his cock was surely unmistakable to someone whose entire attention was focused on his groin. 

“Nearly finished, Serenity,” Avris said, and Maia’s face burned. “If you would open your legs a little wider?” 

Maia found he was trembling when he tried to lift his knees closer to his chest, and it was only with Nemer’s strong hands helping that he managed it. Cool air wafted unnaturally against the crack of his buttocks and then Maia jumped as Avris’s fingers touched him there, spreading him open shamelessly. 

“Oh - that’s-” Maia squeaked. 

“This is extremely important for hygiene, Serenity,” Avris said, slightly stern. “It will be quick.” 

It would have been quicker if Maia could have stopped himself twitching with every stroke but he could not. He was so tender there the slight drag of the razor seemed to reverberate through him with each stroke, and almost worse was the pressure of Avris’s fingers digging into his flesh firmly enough to hold Maia open while he worked. It made something ache deep in Maia’s gut. He was shamefully, obviously hard. He squeezed his eyes shut as Averis finished the last few strokes. 

“There.”

Maia heard the creak of the taps. Nemer helped him lower his legs down into the flow and Maia shuddered as warm water poured over his bare flesh. He leaned forward over his knees to belatedly conceal his cockstand, face and ears flaming. The water washed away the soapy film from his skin, and tingled across all the delicate places that had been shaved, not helping his problem. He forced himself to breathe deeply and think of other things. 

“Are you ready to dress, Serenity?” Esha asked. 

Maia stood shakily, feeling shocks of sensation as his thighs and buttocks rubbed together and as his stones brushed against the newly soft, bare skin at the base of his cock. Esha held out the first layer of his ceremonial robes, and Maia let him slide on the undershirt. As Esha wrapped him in the next layer, the underlayer was pressed to Maia’s skin by the heavier fabric on top of it. 

The silk - already an unaccustomed texture to Maia, although he was growing used to it - felt like water against his smooth legs, and against… Shivering, Maia resisted the urge to touch himself through the fabric, to rub all that sensitive, bare skin against the silk until he spent himself inside his garments. But he had not the time, the privacy, nor the shamelessness to demand either. He reflected darkly that his tedious appointments were likely to seem even more interminable today. 

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, as far as "most hygienic and desirable" goes, I strenuously disagree with this particular elvish sensibility. 
> 
> Comments are love!


End file.
